Game 66 Preview: Buffalo Sabres @ Ottawa Senators
It’s a battle of the bottom-dwellers!
The Senators are coming off a win against the Stars, while the Sabres played last night and were dismantled by the Flames in a 5-1 score which probably flatters them. If you’re on Team Tank, tonight is a must-lose game against an opponent that is only three points behind the Sens (but with the Sens having two more games remaining). A loss will be tough, with the Sens well-rested and the Sabres playing a back-to-back with travel.
According to Brent Wallace, Max McCormick and Erik Burgdoerfer are the scratches, with Craig Anderson getting the start. Here are your lines and pairings:
Ryan - Pageau - Stone
Paajaarvi - Smith - Pyatt
Gaborik - O'Brien - Burrows
Claesson - Karlsson
Harpur - Ceci
Borowiecki - Chabot
Anderson (starter)
Condon
My pointless thoughts:
- That Hoffman-Duchene line has been seeing a lot of turnover as of late. After auditions of Gaborik, Burrows, Paajaarvi, and McCormick on that top line, Ryan Dzingel gets his shot. Personally I think he’s the only one with a real shot at sticking in the top six, but you never know on a Guy Boucher team
- There’s been a lot of talk recently about Mark Stone’s upcoming deal, with one model suggesting he gets $9M. Even the model owner suggests that’s high, but as Ken Warren pointed out in The Sun, Ryan Johansen and Evgeny Kuznetsov are lower point-per-game players making $8M and $7.8M respectively.
- Unrelatedly, “mark” and “stone” both work was improper nouns, so I can’t rely on spell check to let me know I’ve forgotten to capitalize them.
- People have also been pointing out that we need to know for next year if Chabot - Ceci would work as a defensive partnership. I can’t understand why we’re not seeing any of it in these meaningless games.
- Boucher had some interesting comments this morning:/
Boucher says Pageau does have the ability to be a 2nd line center but his value as a matching, defensive centre often supercedes the 2nd line center roll.
— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) March 8, 2018
My personal thought is that Pageau could be a defensive centre with scoring ability if his linemates weren’t Pyatt and Thompson half the year, but you know, I’m never gonna be an NHL coach
- This is still a weird time of year for me. I want to see the Sens lose, but then I see Karlsson get a breakaway on the counterattack in overtime and I get out of my seat hoping to see him score. I hope every game from now on is an 8-7 loss for the Sens with Karlsson getting a hat-trick and four assists./
Some stats for tonight’s teams:
Team Stats
Category | Ottawa | Senators | Boston | Bruins |
---|---|---|---|---|
-- | Value | Rank | Value | Rank |
Goals/GP | 2.68 | 25th | 3.25 | 6th |
Goals against/GP | 3.44 | 30th | 2.56 | 3rd |
Shots/GP | 30.7 | 24th | 32.8 | 11th |
Shots against/GP | 33.0 | 25th | 29.3 | 2nd |
Powerplay % | 16.7 | 26th | 23.5 | 4th |
Penalty Kill % | 76.2 | 27th | 83.3 | 4th |
Corsi (5v5, Score & Venue Adjusted) | 46.32 | 29th | 53.97 | 2nd |
Fenwick (5v5, SVA) | 46.94 | 27th | 54.01 | 1st |
Player Stats
Ottawa | Senators | Boston | Bruins | |
---|---|---|---|---|
-- | Player | # | Player | # |
Goals | Matt Duchene | 27 | Brad Marchand | 34 |
Assists | Erik Karlsson (out) | 53 | Brad Marchand | 51 |
Points | Karlsson/Stone (both out) | 62 | Brad Marchand | 85 |
Shots | Mike Hoffman | 253 | David Pastrnak | 236 |
TOI/GP | Erik Karlsson (out) | 26:44 | Zdeno Chara | 22:53 |
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